(Minghui.org) In July and August, more than 17,000 residents in Taichung, Taiwan signed a criminal report form urging the Chinese authorities to bring former Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin to justice.

Such efforts echo the recent flood of lawsuits against Jiang filed by 157,000 Falun Gong practitioners in China and overseas for launching and directing the violent persecution of Falun Gong. The number of lawsuits has steadily increased since May.

According to Chinese law, a criminal report form signed and dated by any individual with knowledge of a crime constitutes a criminal complaint that can be submitted to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and Court.

The signatures in Taichung come from those in all walks of life, including government officials, city council members, lawyers, teachers, and doctors.

City Council Member: Signature Campaign Will Raise Awareness of the Persecution

He Mingjie, a Taichung city council member signed the criminal report form and said that the city council has passed a resolution condemning the persecution of Falun Gong. “No matter where you are, no matter what you believe, everybody should have the basic human rights,” he said.

“The signature campaign will raise the public awareness of the persecution,” he added. “I believe that more and more people will join the support for the peaceful resistance.”

He Mingjie, the city council member of Taichung, with the criminal report form he signed to condemn Jiang Zemin for his crimes in the persecution of Falun Gong.

Huang Guoshu, a member of the Legislative Yuan, heard about the lawsuits against Jiang and signed the criminal report form at a Falun Gong event.

City council member Zeng Chaorong ran into Falun Gong’s signature campaign booth at a tourist location. He said to practitioners, “I’ve always supported Falun Gong.” Mr. Zeng, along with his his companions, including several lawyers and doctors, signed the forms.

Shi Chunfu, the deputy chief of the city department of cultural affairs, signs a criminal report form against Jiang Zemin.

Mr. Lin, a local businessman, often visits mainland China and knows well about the persecution of Falun Gong there. He told practitioners that he often tries to convince his Chinese friends to quit the Communist Party.

“I even bought hundreds copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party for my Chinese friends. When they come to Taiwan, I always take them to Falun Gong’s booths at the tourist spot, and tell them to read your materials,” he said to a practitioner.

“I really admire Falun Gong, especially those at the tourist spots trying to tell people about the persecution,” said Mr. Lin after signing the criminal report form.

(Minghui.org) The Railway Police in Guizhou Province is using the ticket checking system to identify Falun Gong practitioners, search their belongings, and take them to brainwashing centers or prison.

Since the Chinese communist regime began its suppression of Falun Gong in 1999, practitioners have faced arbitrary arrest, detention, imprisonment, and torture for their beliefs. Ticketing systems have become the latest surveillance tool used by police to capture Falun Gong practitioners as they go about their daily lives.

Mr. Wang Zhixue, 39, was arrested at the Guiyang Railway Station on November 20, 2013, because his ID card showed that he practiced Falun Gong. In February 2015, he was sentenced to nine years in Doyun Prison. His appeal was denied.

In Guiyang City, Mr. Chen Jun and his mother were identified through their IDs at a railway station on July 4, 2015. Police found Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong, and other Falun Gong materials. They arrested Mr. Chen, ransacked his home, and took him to the Lannigou Brainwashing Center. He is still in custody at the time of writing.

These police activities violate Chinese law, including recording citizens’ religious beliefs on an identification card and checking citizens’ personal information through the ticketing system. Searching practitioners’ persons and their belongings based on religious beliefs found from such information is also illegal.

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(Minghui.org) The Supreme People’s Procuratorate in China announced on August 21 that former 610 Office head Li Dongsheng has been indicted for bribery.

Although he has several titles, Chinese media publicized his role in the 610 Office, a secretive organization that directs the persecution of Falun Gong, after he was taken down in December 2013.

Appointed deputy head of the 610 Office when the organization was formed in 1999, Li was also a deputy director of China Central Television (CCTV). In that role, he was in charge of the nationwide propaganda campaign againt Falun Gong to garner public support for its suppression. After Liu Jing retired in October 2009, Li was appointed by Zhou Yongkang as Deputy Minister of Public Security and was in charge of the 610 Office.

One example is “Focus,” a popular CCTV primetime program about current affairs. For six and a half years, between July 21, 1999 and late 2005, “Focus” featured 102 anti-Falun Gong episodes, according to a 2013 report published by the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG). Between July and December 1999 alone, there were 39 anti-Falun Gong episodes, according to the same report.

Another example is CCTV News, broadcast daily at 7:00 p.m. Considered a staple news program, it is the primary news source for the Chinese, whether they live in the city or the countryside. Li extended the program from 30 minutes to 45 minutes to ensure that sufficient anti-Falun Gong content was incorporated into the news.

These defamatory reports were picked up and spread to newspapers and radios by Xinhua News Agency and disseminated overseas through China News Service (CNS), Hong Kong China News Agency (CNA), and Chinese diplomatic agencies.

Second Wave of Defamation

Li’s efforts were very effective in swaying public opinion. In July 2000, he was promoted to deputy director of China’s State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT).

Meanwhile, the persecution began to lose momentum. The brutality practitioners suffered for their belief made many people reconsider the legitimacy of the suppression.

Instructed by Ze Qinghong, head of the Organization Department (1999-2002), and Luo Gan, secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (1998-2007), Li orchestrated the “Tiananmen Square self-immolation“, pushing the propaganda to a new level.

The incident on Tiananmen Square was quickly identified by the Washington Post and numerous overseas organizations as a hoax. The event was also covered by the award-winning documentary False Fire.

But inside China, the fabrication quickly spread–with devastating consequences. Because the staged self-immolation took place the day before the Chinese New Year and included a 12-year-old girl and her mother, the TV program was viewed by a huge audience. The report was carried in newspapers and on television and was even included in school textbooks. The sympathy people had for Falun Gong practitioners turned to anger and hatred.

The popular CCTV program “Focus” acted as a catalyst to fuel hatred against Falun Gong practitioners. In 2001 alone, 39 anti-Falun Gong episodes were aired on the program.

As tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners suffered tremendously for their belief, Li Dongsheng was promoted in May 2002 to deputy minister of the Propaganda Department. As his power increased, his campaign of propaganda was further intensified with violence and torture.

The Persecution Continues

Sixteen years into the suppression, the brutality done to Falun Gong practitioners is astonishing, from arrest, detention, torture, and incarceration in mental hospitals to sexual abuse, forced labor, and live organ harvesting.

Li’s downfall and indictment is not accidental; many high-ranking officials who have actively persecuted Falun Gong have met similar fates, from Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang to Xu Caihou.

Canadian MP Rob Anders said that the justice system will eventually “turn on those people who were the most corrupt and villainous and tyrannical and oppressive with regard to Falun Gong.” He said that those who were most heavily involved in persecuting Falun Gong, “are the ones who overstepped the bounds of decency the most.”

He further explained, “They didn’t just take money. They took dignity, they took integrity, they stole traditions away—they did all these things. They committed incredible human rights violations.” Mr. Anders said he believes that the perpetrators will be held accountable when the communist regime starts to collapse.

U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of its Global Human Rights and International Organization Subcommittee, said he supported the wave of criminal complaints against Jiang being filed by the Chinese.

During a congressional hearing on June 25, 2015, he said, “The courage and the bravery of the Chinese people that keep filing these complaints, that keeps them coming out pushing for democracy and accountability on the Party and the government, is awe-inspiring, because so many of them… are punished in some way, and yet they can persist.”

“The Western world, the free world anywhere in the world, should be having their backs, every day of the week and 24/7, to say, ‘We stand with you and we stand with the suppressed,’” Smith added.

(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners from Indonesia are using various opportunities to raise public awareness of the 16-year long persecution of Falun Gong in China. The recent international competition, the Ironman 70.3 Bintan, offered such an opportunity.

The event was attended by 800 athletes from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Morocco, and included a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bicycle race, and a 13-mile run.

Along the major pathways of the event, practitioners demonstrated the exercises, held banners, passed out informational materials, and collected signatures on petitions that condemn the persecution.

Practitioners explain the recent wave of lawsuits against the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin for persecuting Falun Gong.

(Minghui.org) I went to a photocopy shop to make a copy of my criminal complaint against Jiang Zemin, the former Communist Party leader. When I entered the store, Zhang, one of the employees, was talking with my brother’s coworkers, Wang and Hu (aliases).

Zhang took my USB flash drive to make the copies. Wang grabbed the first page out of the copier and noticed that it was an indictment letter. He asked if I was suing Jiang Zemin, and Hu burst out saying that I was a Falun Gong practitioner.

“Yes, I want to sue Jiang,” I said. “He is very evil, which he has shown by the persecution of Falun Gong. He initiated the persecution. He can’t get away with it.”

“Actually I know this practice is very good.” responded Hu. “Falun Gong teaches people to do good deeds and to improve their character. I have tried the practice.”

I told them that Falun Gong teaches people to practice the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

“It was a very peaceful appeal for the right to practice Falun Gong,” I said. “Jiang was jealous because the cultivation practice had grown to about one hundred million practitioners in just seven years.”

I then told them that everything that the Chinese government published and broadcast about the practice of Falun Gong was fabricated. Hu said that he had given up the practice because the regime’s leaders told the Chinese people to do so.

“People in more than 100 countries now practice Falun Gong. If the persecution had not occurred, you would most likely still be practicing it. For that, you should also sue Jiang.”

Wang and Hu agreed that Jiang should be put on trial and that he is very evil. They told me that they support practitioners in their efforts to sue him.

Wang wondered if the case against Jiang had merit and could be won.

“Don’t worry about it. We will win. Justice is with Falun Gong practitioners and good people worldwide,” I said. “More than 140,000 people have already sued Jiang, as of today. More and more practitioners are working on their complaints against Jiang.”

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(Minghui.org) Fifteen Falun Gong practitioners from Hengshui City, Hebei Province were arrested on August 21, 2015, and one of them died just hours later. At the time of this writing, 13 of the practitioners remain in detention.

Mr. Yuan Shuchen Dies on Same Day of Arrest

Mr. Yuan, 65, suddenly passed away on the day of his arrest, with the police blaming the death on a “heart problem.” His family is working to find out the true cause of his death.

Prior to his arrest, Mr. Yuan had his home ransacked by local police on June 18. The officers confiscated many of his personal belongings, including two laptop computers, two printers, one CD burner, and three paper cutters. They tried to take Mr. Yuan away as well, but were stopped by his family members.

Non-practitioner Wife Seized while Trying to Stop Husband’s Arrest

Close to three dozen agents descended on Mr. Xie Xingguo’s house at around 4:00 a.m. on August 21. They scaled the fence and broke into the home. When Mr. Xie’s wife, who is not a practitioner, tried to stop the officers from taking away her husband, she was also arrested. She was held by police until later that day.

Thirteen Other Arrested Practitioners

In addition to Mr. Yuan and Mr. Xie, 13 other practitioners from Hengshui were also arrested on the same day, including Liu Xiuming, Wen Ping, Liu Yuping, Zhang Jinshan, a practitioner surnamed Feng, Yan Jun, Wei Xiubian, Xiu Yanhua, and five members of the same family (Wang Fulu and his wife Zhang Lanjun, along with their two sons and one daughter-in-law).

Except for Mr. Wang’s daughter-in-law, who was released later on August 21, the rest of the practitioners remain at various local detention centers at the time of this writing.

PLAC Secretary Behind Arrests

According to insiders, Dai Guohua, secretary of Hengshui City Political and Legal Affairs Committee, was the official behind the arrests. He has held many meetings since June to plot surveillance and arrests of local practitioners suspected filing lawsuits against Jiang Zemin. He ordered local post offices to stop processing criminal complaint letters submitted by practitioners, and also directed local counties to set up new brainwashing centers to hold arrested practitioners.

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(Minghui.org) The opening ceremony for “The Art of Zhen, Shan, Ren (Truth, Compassion, Tolerance) International Exhibition” was held in the YouCaring Compassion in Action Gallery in downtown San Francisco on August 21. The show will be up for a week.

Because the exhibition hall is in the downtown area, the rental fee is high. But the gallery owner was deeply moved by the artwork and its message and waived the fee.

Visitors study the paintings.

“I Sense the Divine [in the Artwork]”

Exhibit visitor Mr. Satnam Nandha, who works at the Federal Reserve Bank, was very impressed by this collection of artwork by Falun Gong practitioners.

“I like all the works. Wonderful. I sense the divine in them,” he told the Minghui correspondent.

Mr. Nandha’s favorite was the painting “Melting into the Fa.”

“The artist must be highly spiritual,” he said. “It reflects peace and manifests the inner world of the artist’s heart.”

The painting shows a mother holding a baby and reading the book Zhuan Falun, the main book of the Falun Gong teachings, under low lamplight.

“If everybody could reach this kind of inner peace, the world would be a wonderful place,” he said.

Mr. Nandha also learned about the persecution of Falun Gong in China from some of the paintings. He said he couldn’t understand why anyone would persecute such peaceful, kind people.

“I Admire Their Perseverance”

Samantha, a media editor from New York, said the exhibition was not her first encounter with Falun Gong. She said she had learned about the persecution from numerous Falun Gong events in Manhattan.

“I’m glad I got to see this wonderful artwork, which has helped me learn more about Falun Gong,” she said. “I admire their [practitioners] perseverance and strong faith in the face of the persecution. I can sense positive energy from the artwork. The peacefulness, kindness, and dignity of the practitioners is remarkable.”